Charles Spencer: Don't call me Earl, just buy my furniture

Brother of late Princess Diana hawking his new Althorp line

You may refer to Charles Spencer, brother of Diana, Princess of Wales, as the "ninth Earl Spencer" Do not call him "Earl." You may take his picture, but no flash. It bothers his eyes.

"He likes to be called 'My lord,'" said his local publicist, Patricia Gerlach, who also warned that Spencer does not like questions about Lady Di.

One might expect a man preceded by such protocol to be, well, a royal pain. But when he showed up in Barrington this week to discuss a new furniture line based on pieces from his English estate, Spencer seemed warm and friendly enough.

He even mentioned that he keeps his cricket equipment in a 17th Century oak chest bought from the Washington family.

Yes, the George Washington family.

Spencer said his family and the Washingtons were cousins and that the Spencers occasionally hired them as servants. But now it's the Spencers who need cash, with the scion hawking furniture to finance improvements to Althorp, the family's 500-year-old estate.

"It needs an awful lot of work on it," Spencer said Tuesday night, admitting he sometimes questions whether the exorbitant upkeep is worthwhile. "It's rather like being Christian," he said. "I mean, you have major doubts all the time."

The "Althorp" furniture line is a bit pricey. A mahogany sideboard can be had for $3,599, and a green velvet couch for $5,714.

Spencer's favorite remains the Washington chest -- reproduced down to the red wine stains on top and a mystery scar inside. It costs $2,640 and can be bought at Honquest, the Barrington furniture store where Spencer discussed the furniture line.

"It's just such a handsome, all-around bit of English 17th Century oak furniture," the earl said with a ruddy British smile. "It's fabulous."